‘The View’ Ratings Down In Season 19 Premiere With Revamped Panel

The View yesterday introduced a revamped panel featuring four new hosts and the return of popular original panelist Joy Behar. The preliminary ratings are in, and they are down from last fall’s introduction of another revamped View panel featuring the return of Rosie O’Donnell.

Following a tumultuous 18th season marked by behind-the-scene drama and an exodus of in-front and behind-the-camera talent, The View‘s 19th season premiere yesterday drew a 2.5 household rating and a 1.0 rating among women 25-54. That was down -22% in households and -47% in W25-54 from last September’s debut of Season 18, the first without co-creator/star Barbara Walters. ABC sources note that last fall’s opener was unusually highly rated — the show posted double-digit year-to-year gains and its largest premiere audience in eight years — driven by curiosity over O’Donnell’s return. Ratings dropped quickly after that and never came close to the premiere heights. (Season 18 averaged a 2.3 HH rating and a 1.0 in W25-54.) “We are off and running, this is a solid start, and there is a great excitement about the show,” an ABC rep told Deadline of The View premiere, which built by +14% onto its lead-in.

The Season 19 opener of the long-running talk show, which also has a new executive producer, featured all six hosts — Whoopi Goldberg, the only Season 18 panelist to return — Behar, back after a two-year break, as well as new full-timers Paula Faris, Michelle Collins, Raven-Symoné and Candace Cameron Bure. Guests included U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, whom Behar encouraged to run for vice president alongside Joe Biden, should he make a run for the White House, Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie.

ABC’s other daytime talk show, The Chew (2.2 HH, 0.9 W25-54) was up +10% in households and down =10% in the demo.